Alright friends, I’ve got a weird one.

My dearest friend (and ex-wife, mother of my son. Long story) has a condition that has caused her stomach to no longer function. There’s a lot of details, a lot of which I’m not intimately familiar with, but the short story is she cannot eat nor drink most things by mouth. She can sometimes drink tea, occasional other drinks. Fats are bad. She has a feeding tube that supplies her with a nutrient solution.

But she doesn’t get to eat. She doesn’t get to enjoy food. She was telling me today she got a broth or something that has no fat and it was so tasty and it was basically the first actual food flavor she’s had since November. She’s overjoyed with being able to enjoy it. We’re still waiting to see if she can keep it down.

But my idea was (and I’ve discussed it with her and she’s shown interest - I’m not just going off on a tear) to find like flavor isolates or concentrates? If they’re concentrates, they’d need to be diluted. But then she could like dip a toothpick in them or something like you do when you’re sampling a hot sauce.

But they need to be good. I don’t want to give her a vial with the shadow of the idea of the taste of a food. I want it to be convincing, so she can really enjoy it. She’s being deprived of one of the basic pleasures in life, and I really want to remedy that situation.

So, internet friends, with all of your varied and wild interests and expertise, how may I help my friend?